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Friday, July 21, 2017

For my birthday this year I had a day of pampering. I'd gotten a voucher for a makeup session at Charlotte Tilbury in Covent Garden for Christmas which I had booked to do on my birthday which was a Saturday at the end of April.

It didn't get off to the best start as I realised in the morning I'd had no email confirmation, as I'd booked over the phone, so I rang just to double check all was ok - only to find they had no record of my booking! Naturally I wasn't thrilled but luckily the manager said they could fit me in anyway at the time I had booked for (since I had booked a blow dry elsewhere afterwards).

I had a two hour session and was shown looks for daytime and evening, perched awkwardly on a high stool in front of a huge mirror with lights around the edge, feeling slightly crammed in next to the other women (most of whom had brought a friend or their mum) seated around me. I think I expected the session to be more of a makeup tutorial and there was a degree of finding colours and looks that suited me but I'm not sure I took a lot in about how it was being applied which was a bit of a shame.

I didn't realise as well that their two hour session is quite unusual and most people have an hour. It was described on the website as a 'makeup wardrobe' to find colours and a look that suits, but when I had the conversation with the manager about how they had lost my booking, she said they didn't offer the makeup wardrobe session any more and it shouldn't have been on the website (though it was) and that the person taking my booking shouldn't have done so in the first place! They did honour the booking and give me the session I had booked and paid for but I could tell that after about an hour and a half the girl doing my makeup was really struggling for something to do and it was a bit like 'shall we add an extra bit of highlighter'... still she did her best and did a good job and I was happy with the rest (though I'd advise anyone else to just book the one hour session) - and ended up buying several products to take home. The manager even slipped an extra product into my bag to make up for the confusion over my booking.

Then it was on to Blow Ltd, a blow-dry bar in nearby St Martin's Courtyard. They don't do hair cuts but will style your hair in a selection of styles, and also do hair and makeup. There was only one other person in there having her hair done at the time who turned out to be one of the other stylists - they were quiet so were practising on each other! I was surprised they weren't busier for 5pm on a Saturday afternoon but I'd never heard of this place before until I was googling where to get a blow dry. They did a great blow dry and the girl was happy to adapt the style to my hair type and talked to me about what I wanted rather than just have me point to one of the eight options pictured on the wall. I'd definitely go back and get another blow dry if funds allowed - though I'm not normally the type of person to get glammed up to go out on a Saturday night!

I met my husband outside and his reaction to both the hair and makeup was 'wow'. He'd come in to London to meet me to take me for a birthday dinner. My criteria for choosing a restaurant was 1) somewhere I hadn't been before 2) somewhere near Covent Garden 3) somewhere worthy of a birthday dinner 4) somewhere with a menu that would suit both me and my fussy-eater husband.

I found the Delaunay online and couldn't believe I'd never heard of it before. It's run by the same people as the Wolseley, a high-end restaurant my husband and I went to for my birthday a couple of years ago. It stands on the corner of Aldwych and Drury Lane and is apparently popular for pre-and post-theatre dining, which explains why it was really busy when we arrived then emptied out dramatically just before 7.30!

The other reason I was surprised I hadn't heard of this place is because I love German food, having twice lived in Germany. The Delaunay describes itself as a European cafe - it has a cafe section and the main restaurant - but from looking at the menu the food seems to be German or Austrian-inspir ed. There's a fair bit of seafood including crab and oysters, sardines and scallops, and 'normal' things like a burger but the fact that the eggs section is called Eier and the daily specials Tagesteller is a bit of a giveaway. They have Wiener Schnitzel and chickens schnitzel , a whole section of German sausages and a dessert selection that is decidedly Germanic, from Black Forest Gateau to Sachertorte to apple strudel.

I was in heaven. My husband had their chicken schnitzel which he'd eaten in Austria and really enjoyed, and I picked a mixture of two types of sausage - a Frankfurter and a Berber Wurstel, which was a pork and garlic sausage, stuffed with Emmental cheese down the middle, and wrapped in bacon. It came with a small portion of potatoes and sauerkraut (I love sauerkraut and don't think I've ever had it in a restaurant in the UK before) - but as I didn't know it came with those, I'd ordered a side of spätzle, which is like a kind of pasta that you typically get in southern Germany and Austria.

The cheese was actually a bit much with the richness of the sausage and if I had this again I'd stick to a plain sausage, but otherwise it was really good. For dessert I had a piece of strudel which came with an edible biscuit plaque where the restaurant had written a happy birthday message - I must have mentioned my birthday when I booked, which I thought was a nice touch. So if you are yearning for a little bit of Germany and Austria in London, or just want to try something a bit different, I strongly recommend the Delaunay.